Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to see Disney’s new movie, “Tomorrowland” In the movie, they briefly mentioned the story about the two wolves, which appears to be a Native American folk story, of some kind.
“The battle is between two wolves inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity; guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. Which wolf wins? Whichever one you feed.”
This got me thinking about how this pertains to a life with Christ. When we go through difficulties, it is easy to focus on the problem, and feed our fears, whatever they may be in that specific situation. When we keep our eyes on the problem, worry, doubt, fear, anxiety, sickness, stress, and depression creep in and we are feeding the wrong “wolf”. We are, in effect, setting ourselves up! So what happens if we feed the other “wolf?” What happens if we feed our faith rather than our fears? PEACE. Peace in the midst of the storm.
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:6-9, NLT)
When we focus on our problems, they become bigger!! When we focus on God, we set ourselves up for a greater faith and hope in the midst of difficulty. We are empowered to keep trusting, to keep persevering, to keep pressing in, to keep believing that God will keep his promises and that God will make a way when the world says there is no way.
Whichever you choose to feed, your faith, or your fears, will get bigger, and more powerful in your life. Think about your own circumstances, your own life, and ask yourself, what do you want to feed? And What are you feeding?
